Great day with a mixed bag

We went fishing with our good friends Loren and Dollye. We had a beauty of a day, just a light breeze and clear sky. We started off the day with a bit of heavy tackle popping. The fish were there but they did not want to bite. It is a strange thing when the fish swim right up to the poppers and seem to play with them without actually biting.

After what seems like forever, Loren finally hooks up to a nice GT. Only problem is he has switched to 30lb gear and now he is in for the fight of his life. This big fish had him all over the place and just when Loren thought he was up on the fish, the fish reminded him who was boss. Loren persevered and eventually boated the GT.

From Jan 3rd 2011

Next up was Rosie. She is using 50lb gear but this brute of a GT is foul hooked and uses not only the current but the depth to try and put the hurt on her. Ahhh, but alas Rosie prevails and soon we have color next to the boat.

From Jan 3rd 2011

After much casting with little more to show Loren, hooks up to a nice Emperor and brings it in for a photo shoot.

From Jan 3rd 2011

Now during all of this Dollye is casting and popping for all she is worth. It is not to be on this particular day. Not for lack of trying or lack of spirit.

Here is a shot of Dollye in action while everyone else is relaxing.

From Jan 3rd 2011

We finished the day with a little bit of jigging. Not a lot happening there either but Rosie did land a nice grouper on a Lucanus style jig.

From Jan 3rd 2011

Here is the video of Loren and Rosie catching their GTs.

Until next time remember,

Fishing is not a sport it is a way of life.

Tight lines

The brutal bommies

We went fishing with our friends Yuki, Jose and Maki. The weather was good, but the bite was not really hot.

Yuki had expressed a desire to fish among some bommies. For those who do not know what a bommie is. A bommie is a shallow piece of reef with some being close together and some far apart.

Below you can see small reef structures just below the surface, these are bommies. The splash is a popper doing what poppers do, POP!

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

When casting to GTs among bommies you have to change the style of fighting. You have in effect, given the fish and advantage. There are sharp edges everywhere, just waiting to cut your braided line. The fight, once hooked up to a GT, will be brutal at best. You have to keep the GT from getting you around a bommie and that will not be easy. Pound for pound they are one of the hardest fighting fish in the world.

If Yuki wants to fish the bommies, then why not? After all it is really addicting even if it is a bit costly in terms of lost gear.

Yuki and Jose surveying a good spot to cast to.

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

Looking out over a school of bait with birds that has just moved off of a bommie. Very fishy but no luck to be had here.

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

Yuki popping amongst the bommies.

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

Yuki with a really nice coral trout. Just goes to show what you can catch on a bommie.

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

Here is a quick video of Yuki catching the coral trout and then Yuki being taught a lesson about bommies by a GT.

Yuki did go on to redeem himself, but I feel that the agony of defeat never left him.

Bommies are the realm of heavy tackle and high drags, big hooks and tough leaders.

A nice bluefin trevally.

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

And finally a GT, not the behemoth that smoked him but a nice one.

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

Mr. Maki who has fished before but never for Giant Trevally was ready to go.

Rosie gave him a few instructions before showing him how to cast. On her first demo cast, she fires out a monster cast towards a bommie and as she pulls up the slack and gives the lure a pop, it gets smashed. She sets the hook before handing Mr. Maki the rod.

He puts up a good fight and soon enough we have a nice Job fish in the boat.

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

Mr. Maki then follows this up with a nice bluefin.

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

Then he proceeds to land another Job fish.

From Yuki, Jose and Maki

Unfortunately for Jose it was not to be.

We had a great day out and Yuki got to pop amongst the bommies.

Tight lines

Soft plastics with a bit of popper thrown in

Some times one just needs to try new things in order to break out of a mold.

Rosie and I have been popper fishing for quite awhile now. As you know we love it and do alright in the fish category. The problem is, a lot of the better eating fish are found a little deeper in the water column. Therefore one must try a new style of fishing to get down were the tasty fish live.

So the plan is set to do a bit of deep water soft plastic jigging. Now I have read heaps, watched loads of videos and talked to everyone I know who does this type of fishing. I did not want to fail at this.

We head out of the break water to a flat sea with high hopes and new ideas.

From Soft plastic jigging

The first few spots and drifts produce nothing. We do however encounter a pod of spinner dolphins mucking around. Unfortunately for you all we are we too engrossed in fishing to shoot any photos of them.

We then move to an area that has a lot of small reefs in the 20 to 30mt range.

Jackpot!

Right away we find the fish and I work out the technique for catching them.

From Soft plastic jigging

A close up of this beautiful fish.

From Soft plastic jigging

Now that I have figured this out the fish start to come in with every drop of the jig.

From Soft plastic jigging

From Soft plastic jigging

Now Charlie is getting in on the action.

From Soft plastic jigging

And then Rosie hooks up.

From Soft plastic jigging

Now young cousin Marky has figured it out and he starts to catch fish.

From Soft plastic jigging

From Soft plastic jigging

From Soft plastic jigging

We continue to catch these cods and trouts for awhile. Then Rosie gets bored with all this jigging and she starts popping.

Tossing around her popper on 30lb gear while surrounded by coral reefs that just beg to break you off.

Of course she is going to hook up. And it is going to be a big fish that takes every trick we know to extract it from the depths.

From Soft plastic jigging

Once we have settled down after Rosies GT the wind starts to really kick. It is getting rough but we fish on.

Of course Rosie is still throwing a popper with her 30lb gear and wouldn't you know it she hooks up to a really big fish this time.

I jump behind the wheel and the chase/fight is on. At first she thought it was foul hooked by the way the fish was fighting, but it turns out it was just a big GT. After a prolonged battle due to fish size and weather conditions we finally boat a big, fat and pregnant GT. We move quickly to minimize out of water time and snap a few pictures. Then with great fanfare she swims away strong.

From Soft plastic jigging

It has now become so rough that we are having trouble standing in the boat without hanging on. That is the sure sign to head for home.

Ice chest full of great eating fish and Rosie with sore arms.

A success by any measure.

Tight lines

Making up for lost time with Brendan and Al

It has been too long since we had a good fish. So the best cure for that is to go fishing, and a fishing we went.

My good friend Brendan and his cousin Al, visiting from Hawaii, joined Rosie and myself for a bit of light tackle in shore fishing. Our target species for the day was, Bluefin trevally and Emperors. We were fishing with 15lb to 30lb line.

Let the fun begin.

First on the board was Brendan with a nice 5.5kg Bluefin.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

Then it was my turn. I am usually behind the wheel, but I try to steal a few casts here and there.

So, opportunity presented itself and I cast out with my 30lb gear, on the third pop, my lure gets smashed. At first the fish does not realize it has been hooked or doesn't care. It just keeps on swimming casually away.

Then I set the hooks and hold on, as what appears to be a good size GT, turns on the afterburners and tears off too an unseen, razor sharp, refuge.

The fight was exhilarating while it lasted, which was about 30 seconds.

That which connected me to the fish, parted.

The ever familiar sound of braid breaking, CRACK!

Damn, fish 1 Callan 0.

I sulk back to my place behind the wheel, humbled by a fish. Not just any fish, but a Giant Trevally. Pound for pound one of the hardest fighting fish in all the world.

Time for Al to get on the board. He is using a light 15lb set up.

When he hooks up, even to the small ones, it is a sight to see. Especially with a Brassy Trevally. They pull very hard for their size.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

Right about now I see another chance for me to get a quick cast in. I fire off a cast with a rather expensive lure. As I make my first pop my lure if hammered. I see the slab side of a Red Bass as it takes my lure and finds an unseen, razor sharp, refuge.

That which connected me to the fish, parted.

The ever familiar sound of braid breaking, CRACK!

Damn, fish 2 Callan 0.

I sulk back to my place behind the wheel, humbled by a fish. Granted, the Red Bass is no slouch. You get exactly 1.3 seconds to turn it towards the boat, if no? Then the ever familiar sound of braid breaking, CRACK!

So we now get back to the people that can actually boat fish.

That would be Al.

Here he is with a beauty of a Bluefin Trevally.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

Well now I am feeling a bit out of sorts. With two denied fish and all.

I see another chance, only this time my 30lb is not rigged so I grab my 15lb set up and fire a little stick bait on top of the reef.

I know, what the hell am I thinking, I have been smashed twice already on 30lb, why go to 15lb?

I cannot explain it, but it worked. I finally boat a small Brassy Trevally.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

Now Rosie has been a bit quiet up to this point. She has yet to get on the board.

Rest assured that is not going to last.

She manages to boat a nice Bluefin.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

Followed by another.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

And of course, two in a row was not quite enough to remind us who is boss. She goes and catches Black Tip reef shark.

Now that in and of itself is a good feat, but then Rosie informs me that she wants her popper back.

New ball game.

Namely teeth, and a lot of them, and they are really sharp.

After a great comedy of errors, we manage to extract her popper, leaving the shark without any fishing bling.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

All the while Al is quietly boating fish after fish.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

This one is a Big Eye Trevally.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

A view of our fishing grounds.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

And of course, as if to rub in the fact that I was smoked by a Red Bass, Rosie goes and catches a cracker of a specimen.

From Brendan Al Rosie Callan

A great time was had by all.

We enjoyed Al and his stories immensely.

My next post will be a brand new targeted species as well as a personal best for Rosie.

Until then,

Tight lines

Twisted Leaders Fishing Club Competition

Our newly formed fishing club just had its first fishing comp.

We had 57 entries and a total of 37 fish caught.

The rules were simple, no boats, nets, explosives or poisons allowed.

I put together this video collage with the best fish tale at the end.

Enjoy

Global Wetting

Oh the weather. Mother nature has a way of letting us know who is boss. She has been giving us the one, two punch combo for a couple of weeks now. If it is not raining it is blowing and when it stops blowing it starts raining. Ahhhhhhh......... global wetting.

Needless to say I have not been out much. I do not mind a little wind or rain but there comes a point when enough is enough.

Take for instance our last session out with Richard and his brother in-law Perry.

The plan was for us to fish on Thursday. A little heavy tackle a little light tackle, catch a few fish, have a good time.

I am up at 5am and head down to the water to see the conditions. Looks ok, but a little rough in the channel. I call Richard at around 6am and he says we go for it.

We load up the boat and head out.

It does not take long for the weather to head south on us and before we know it, everyone is wet from the rain. Credit must be given to Richard and Perry as they persevered in the wet and continued to fish.

From fishing with Richard

Richard in action with the reef barely visible in the background.

From fishing with Richard

Perry showing the proper way to cast in a tropical down pour. Notice you can not see the reef.

We were soon chased inside the reef as it got too rough and the wind was howling. Once inside we switched to lighter tackle and calmer waters. It was still tough going and in the end only one fish was brought to the boat.

From fishing with Richard

A small Bluefin Trevally.

We gave it our best shoot and stayed out until our underwear were wet. At that point I had to call it quits and Richard and Perry had to head of to the airport.

Our trip home was interesting. Zero visibility, driving rain and rough seas. Thank Garmin for GPS.

From fishing with Richard

Tight lines and dry skivvies

To film or not to film? That is the question.

We set out with the intention of filming some how to videos. How to tie a bimini, how to cast big poppers etc. Unfortunately our camera man brought his new fishing pole and wanted to give it a try. And who am I to say no you can not fish?

As we left the river mouth it looked to be a cracker of a day.

From Inshore with Brendan

But as usual that was just a teaser. Within 5 minutes the wind was blowing 20 knots and the chop had picked up. We headed to a sheltered bay to do a bit of filming. Brendan (the videographer) grabbed his new 15 lb rod and reel and proceeded to cast a small popper to the shallow reefs surrounding us.

Before I could tie a bimini twist he was on, and it was a good fish.

From Inshore with Brendan

The Trevally had him doing circles around the boat. I knew at that very instant that he would not be filming on this day. After a good fight by both angler and fish, the angler was victorious. A nice 4kg trevally.

From Inshore with Brendan

So it was to be, that Brendan was now sporting a grin that would not soon go away.

We then moved out to a bit deeper reef system which of course means a bit larger fish. Time to switch to the 30 lb gear. Of course just to make his point clear that he had no intentions on filming, Brendan went on to catch a very nice 6 kg Bluefin Trevally.

From Inshore with Brendan

Now this next picture of the same fish, only a close up, is for a reason. It is the last time Brendan's popper was ever seen.

From Inshore with Brendan

Very soon after a giant cod or Red bass engulfed the popper, split ring, and swivel in one smooth, explosive move. It bit right though the twisted double leader. Of course Brendan was devistated. I felt his pain for exactly one second, then I realized he would be buying another from my shop. I know, I'm a little bit evil.

Next up was Rosie with a nice Bluefin.

From Inshore with Brendan

Followed by another Trevally.

From Inshore with Brendan

Look closely at Rosie's popper because it is no more. Taken in the same unceremonious way as Brendan's. A big rampaging something that was unstoppable.

After all the fish these two were catching it made me hungry.

Corned beef and crackers, a clasic Fijian lunch.

From Inshore with Brendan

After lunch it was the captains turn to catch a fish, no matter how small.

From Inshore with Brendan

On our way home we tucked into a small sheltered bay again and Brendan proceeded to catch a few small Trevally's and a baby Goatfish.

From Inshore with Brendan

From Inshore with Brendan

After that we pounded our way into the wind and chop to make it home before dark.

We had a great day despite no filming.

Oh and Brendan has decided he wants to go out again this Sunday, to fish.

Tight lines